NATIONAL: Fashion, homewares and lifestyle brand Laura Ashley has been forced to amend its pricing policy following a review by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
According to the ACCC, which announced it had accepted court-enforcable undertakings from Laura Ashley yesterday (May 5), the brand was at a risk of misleading consumers with two-price advertising on a specific product line.
The ACCC alleged that from December 2005 to December 2007, Laura Ashley had adopted a promotional strategy based on establishing a supposed 'regular price' for the line by launching it in a limited number of stores for a limited time.
Laura Ashley then released the line to a broad number of stores, claiming the line had been reduced from the 'regular' price to a bargain price, even though the line was not previously being sold in those stores.
An ACCC spokesperson confirmed the strategy - designed to attract bargain hunters - could be construed as "deceitful".
Laura Ashley has now ceased offering goods for sale with a price label bearing two prices and undertaken a review of its pricing policy for bed linen and homewares products.
ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said businesses needed to ensure any comparisons they made about price were accurate.
"Two-price advertising, or comparison pricing as it is also known, is a very powerful selling technique because of its appeal to bargain-hunting consumers," he said.
"Businesses planning to mark down goods need to be able to prove that the discounts being offered are a genuine saving and that the goods were readily available to consumers at the higher price, reasonably recently. Discounts need to work off genuine selling prices, not constructed justifications."